D Z's garage frag tank(formerly CAD 34G Mini)

[Arkayology]

Nice start to your tank!

[D Z]

Honestly,scapes and dosing regiments are the hardest to figure out I think lol.

 

I was actually able to throw the scape together for my 7 gallon within 5 minutes and face palmed myself because the scape is so sexy lol.

 

How's the plethora of bacteria dosing going for,cycle wise ?

I honestly have not tested a single thing yet, so I do not know. The water has cleared up a lot, so I guess that is a good sign. I also got my hands on a bottle of ammonia cloride and dosed about 2ppm of ammonia on Saturday. I might tested it tonight just to see where I am at. I was anticipating the cycle to take about 2-3 weeks. So far, no signs of any algae, so it is probably still in the ammonia/nitrite stage.

 

Nice start to your tank!

Thanks Ark!

[lilmatty5dimes]

love that aquascape looking great.

[D Z]

love that aquascape looking great.

Thank you Matty!

 

So it appears that the cycle is about complete. Late last week, I tested the parameters for the first time. They were around .01ppm Ammonia, .1ppm Nitrite, and just under 1 ppm Nitrate. I dosed 2 ppm ammonium chloride and it took about 2 days for the ammonia to get back to 0. Yesterday, I noticed the start of some Diatoms. I figure, by Friday, which just happens to be my day off, I will be ready for the CUC.

 

Therefore, I placed my order with reef cleaners for a CUC package(went with the 25 gallon package), some chaeto, and a bag of pods!

 

Here are some pics, because who doesn't love pics.

 

Diatoms, the little bit that I have

https://flic.kr/p/p15YVh'>https://flic.kr/p/p15YVh'>20140901_213040 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

Nice FTS

https://flic.kr/p/oKCDjS'>https://flic.kr/p/oKCDjS'>IMG_20140901_215009 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

[JR!]

scape is so ####ing good

[ninjamyst]

scape is so ####ing good

 

+1. this is going to turn out sooooooooooooo awesome.

[D Z]

scape is so ####ing good

Thanks JR! !

 

+1. this is going to turn out sooooooooooooo awesome.

Thanks Ninja, I can't wait til this weekend.

 

CUC Friday

Then Fish shopping either Friday or Saturday

Then moving some corals over throughout the weekend.

I cannot wait to get my torch back from my brother-in-law. He is dealing with a nasty cyano problem, so the sooner the better.

[D Z]

Well I didn't get a chance to go fish shopping this weekend, but I did get my CUC in from John at reefcleaners.org and as usual, he sent a ton of snails!

 

https://flic.kr/p/p88WtR'>https://flic.kr/p/p88WtR'>20140905_132443 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

Hopefully I will get out to go shopping at least for the new clownfish this week. I want to get the clown pair in the tank as soon as possible and start transferring over coral, as well. I will probably then take it pretty slow on stocking the remaining fish.

 

Oh and this was pretty cool. I stayed up late Saturday night to see this:

https://flic.kr/p/p6nHxj'>https://flic.kr/p/p6nHxj'>20140907_010035_Night by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/p89mCn'>https://flic.kr/p/p89mCn'>20140907_010133_Night by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

Not the best pics, but still cool non-the-less. This was a SpaceX Falcon 9 that launched from Kenedy Space Center Sunday morning at 1AM and that was the view from my front porch.

[theishkid]

Which clean up crew did you get and do you know about how much it was? I'm gonna have to order the same one in a week or two. Anything you would have changed about it?

[D Z]

So far it seems to be good for this size tank. I just got the snail only 25 gallon package. By how much do u mean money or how many of each did I actually get?

[D Z]

I finally started moving some coral over to the new tank last night. Took a couple really quick pics. These were about 15 minutes or so after moving them over, so they don't look amazing, but not bad considering. Also, I got my torch back from my brother-in-law's tank. So happy this is now back in my hands. It was a 15 minute or so drive so, it is all closed up.

 

I'm planning on moving my clown over this weekend, as well as getting the new clown. Also, I am going to try to move over a couple pieces of coral each night so I will keep the pictures coming!

 

https://flic.kr/p/oU6RZj'>https://flic.kr/p/oU6RZj'>IMG_20140912_093302 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/pbAfag'>https://flic.kr/p/pbAfag'>20140911_231256 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

https://flic.kr/p/oU6WfH'>https://flic.kr/p/oU6WfH'>20140911_231245 by https://www.flickr.com/people/89326890@N03/'>cchsoracle, on Flickr

[Reefkid88]

And it begins,hell yeah man this is awesome !!!

[D Z]

And it begins,hell yeah man this is awesome !!!

Thanks man. It was exciting to finally get some color in the tank. My wife actually just sent me a picture of the torch and it is already about half open, so that makes me even more happy!

 

Now to get some fish in there.....I really am craving the movement.

[Reefkid88]

Sh*t I'm sure. I'd be happy too. How much more stuff so you have to move over besides the fish ?

 

I've been dying to get a pair of Yellow Neon Gobies from Top Shelf,but I'm patiently waiting until I either set up the 7 gallon again or get the Fusion 10. Are you getting anymore fish than what you already have ?

[D Z]

There is quite a bit to transfer over still. I have a handful of ricordeas, a yuma, 2 chalices, 2 cyphastreas, 1 acro, 1 acan echinata, 1 acan lord, some duncans, and probably a couple more I am forgetting. I plan to do it in groups of 4 to 5 pieces at a time.

 

As for fish, I am still undecided. I like to let my wife help me pick out fish as she has good taste and it keeps her interested in the tank. Right now she really wants me to do a leopard wrasse and mandarin to make things interesting. I am a little worried about the leopard, as it would probably out-grow the tank in about a year or so. I have heard that Top Shelf gets leopards that are eating frozen from time to time, so we may end up going with that option. The mandarin would be cool. She want to name it OJ, lol! I would just wait a while to do it, so that the tank is more established.

[Mirya]

I finally started moving some coral over to the new tank last night. Took a couple really quick pics. These were about 15 minutes or so after moving them over, so they don't look amazing, but not bad considering. Also, I got my torch back from my brother-in-law's tank. So happy this is now back in my hands. It was a 15 minute or so drive so, it is all closed up.

 

I'm planning on moving my clown over this weekend, as well as getting the new clown. Also, I am going to try to move over a couple pieces of coral each night so I will keep the pictures coming!

 

IMG_20140912_093302 by cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

You scrunched up torch, newly planted in your tank makes me think of a windswept juniper out in the barren desert

 

After the rains come to the desert, the tree comes back to life... can't wait to see the life spring up in this tank.

[lilmatty5dimes]

starting to come along greatly. can't wait to see this in a few weeks

[D Z]

 

 

You scrunched up torch, newly planted in your tank makes me think of a windswept juniper out in the barren desert

 

After the rains come to the desert, the tree comes back to life... can't wait to see the life spring up in this tank.

Very cool comparison Mirya. I cannot wait either!

 

 

starting to come along greatly. can't wait to see this in a few weeks

Thank you!

 

 

So it was a very busy, but fun and productive weekend.

 

We went out shopping to 4 different LFS's on Saturday. I didn't plan on going to so many places, but I just couldn't seem to find a small ocellaris that looked good enough to buy. I ended up finding an awesome small/medium ORA ocellaris at Sea in the City. I had never been there, but what a cool little shop. I added the new clown Saturday night and then tried to catch my current clown in the Nuvo, but did not have any luck. Sunday night, I was moving more frags over and was able to get one of the rock structures out, which gave me a lot more room to catch the clown. So far, they seem to be getting along GREAT!

20140914_224835 by cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

20140914_203140 by cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

 

I also picked up some of the Algagen live phyto/rotifer/copapod mix. I had been talking to a couple people and it was highly recommended. I had noticed that my torch was having issues with the transfer from high nutrient/lower lighting to low nutrient/higher lighting. It started loosing all the tissue around the rim. Not sure if the Algagen was the reason, but now it is starting to look a bit better and is starting to regain some of the tissue around the rim. Keeping my fingers crossed. Loosing this torch would be very hard for me as it is the main reason I upgraded.

 

I also transferred over some more coral. I would say I am about half way done with the transfer now. I haven't had time to sit down and do some true photo editing, so these quick cell phone pics with quick Flickr editing will have to do for now.

20140914_224951 by cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

20140914_224959 by cchsoracle, on Flickr

 

I am also thinking about changing up the bulb setup in my ATI fixture. Right now it is:

Coral+ - Blue+ - Blue+ - Purple+ - Blue+ - Coral+

From what I can tell, this may be too much light for the tank. Also, I want some more pop from my LPS and softies. I thinking I might take out one of the Coral+ and one Blue+ and replace it with 2 true Actinics. Still not quite sure what order I want to go with, but that I will have to play around with when the new bulbs arrive.

 

And on another cool note, I finished setting up my Jarquarium and brought it to work. Check out the link in my signature.

[charnelhouse]

Following, very nice tank build. Planned and executed to a T.

[D Z]

Following, very nice tank build. Planned and executed to a T.

Thanks!

 

So I wanted to talk a little about the remaining fish to be stocked. We looked a lot at fish this weekend because I wanted to give my wife a chance to see different things in person. So after this weekend, we are almost 100% on adding a Fathead Sunburst Anthia and Springeri Damsel. We are also still very much considering a mandarin. I know the damsel will need to be added absolutely last, so that it doesn't have aggression issue for any new fish to the tank.

 

Does anyone have any other input? I feel like 5 fish is pretty much the maximum, so that may end up being the finalized list, but it is still up in the air.

[D Z]

Had a slight set-back last night. I got home from work to find that my 1 acro that I had transferred over was loosing tissue from the top down. May have been too early to transfer it over. I did notice that the encrusted base still had some PE so I went ahead and fragged it down to the base in hopes that I could save it. The base still looked ok this morning so my fingers are crossed.

 

I also had a big orange rimmed rhodactis that seems to have gotten a hole in it somehow. Not really sure if this happened when I removed it from the rock it was on in the Nuvo or what, but I moved it to a low flow area to give it a chance to heal. Fingers crossed for that piece as well.

 

Everything else looked ok, or at least as good as I can expect for only being in the new tank for less that 24 hours.

[Reefkid88]

Damn man,that sucks. Hopefully the shroom and Acro survive.

 

The Sunburst is what 4x5 has in this tank correct ? Is so,that's a awesome looking fish.

[D Z]

Damn man,that sucks. Hopefully the shroom and Acro survive.

 

The Sunburst is what 4x5 has in this tank correct ? Is so,that's a awesome looking fish.

Yeah, I believe so. Alex B also has one. Very pretty fish.

[Reefkid88]

Oh okay. It really is,Anthia's are some good looking fish. They make me want a bigger tank just so I can have one lol.

[D Z]

Well another slight upset.....last night was not the best night.

 

 

First, I was working on making my screen top so I can stop using the glass top. I set the glass top down on my bed and totally forgot. Went to sit down on the bed while working on the screen top and sat right on the glass. Needless to say, I am not hurt and was able to clean everything up, I am just really pissed at myself for making such a dumb mistake.

 

And now for the real set back:

I hate to even admit this, but it seems my tank is having trouble with the added bioload of the clownfish/CUC. It may also have something to do with the heavy feeding I have been doing. My tank was looking so clean, that now that there was 2 fish and coral, I have been feeding somewhat heavy trying to get nutrients into the tank. I was worried that the coral was getting starved.

 

Well, last night I got around to actually checking my levels, and here were the results:

Ammonia: appx. 1ppm

Nitrite: appx 8-9 ppm

Nitrate: appx. 30-40 ppm

This was at midnight last night and there was no way I was about to do a water change. I added a couple drops of MB7 and about 3ml of Prime hoping it would combat things for now. I plan to check the levels again when I get home and probably do a 5 gallon water change.

 

The fish seem to be fine. They are swimming happily, not breathing heavily, no aggression, no signs of stress. The coral has been looking ok, but not nearly as happy as when it was in my other tank. I had attributed it to the tank transfer and extremely low nutrients, obviously now I know the true reason why.

 

 

On a somewhat better note, my 2 new actinic bulbs arrived. Still not getting as much pop as I want, but that may have something to do with the coral loosing color due to my other issue. None-the-less, I think I am happy with this configuration for now:

 

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